Story of Time
by ObviouslyElementary
Summary: Someone had to create Underland before Alice came to it, right?


" _Wilkins! Wilkins! Where are you?!"_

" _R-right here sir"_

" _There is someone in my door… go open for them, but tell them to be brief. We have many things to do"_

" _Y-yes sir!"_

 _As the little mechanical butler wondered off, Time turned to face the fireplace in his throne room, humming and moving the logs around to produce more fire. The clock then struck two. He sighed. Would that day never end?_

 _Would eternity never end?_

" _S-sir! It… it's the girl!"_

 _Time's moustache flickered and his eyes blinked before he stood, turning to face the door where, once more, that little yellow haired kindergartener stood._

" _Hello sir. Would you be so kind to spend me a minute of your you?"_

 _The smile that grew on Time's face should not have been so big._

 _But then again, a minute could last an eternity._

There was once a boy named Timur, who lived in a small town where, in the future, would become the big country Russia. At his time, however, it was all just a big, open field with several cities and towns, all of them small, just like his own.

He was 10 years old at the time. Just like his father, and as usual for people from small countries, he was learning how to become a clock maker. A clocker. His father had this small shop in town that sold and fixed clocks, and just like his older and younger siblings, he was learning to become a clocker as well.

He loved working with metal and wood, just like any good clocker should. He made toys for him and his siblings, being the best of the brothers and sisters with the materials. His father was very proud of him.

Slowly as he grew up to his ten years of age, his father grew more and more proud, taking all his free time to teach him about the art of clocking.

And it all fascinated Timur. How came that humans could control Time, such an amazing being, with a single small object with arrows? It made no sense in the small mind of his, and yet it fascinated him. And yet, with all the clocks in the world, they couldn't make time stop.

Timur was a very creative child. And he spent every day wondering how many clocks would be needed to stop time completely.

" _I thought I had told you to never come back, Alice" he said as he served her some tea. She hummed happily, looking around and sitting on a chair right in front of him as she drank._

" _Well sir, I came to visit my friends since I missed them, and decided to pay you a visit as well. After all, you said you were friends with no men, but it doesn't mean men can't be friends with you" she grinned, and he stared at her, blue eyes flickering with happiness as he processed her words._

" _You are smarter than you look, young lady" he said and sipped on his tea calmly. "You are truly a sight for sore eyes, I must say. After the adventure we had together, I ended up developing affection for company. I have even allowed company, as you must have seen, but none of your friends seem to trust me enough to come and spare me some tea" he sighed. Alice frowned._

" _That is not nice of them at all!" she said, seeming a bit angry and a bit disappointed. "I shall warn them you desire company! They will visit in no time"_

" _Oh no please" he said and smiled over his cup of tea. "I do not need constant company and in the end… they might bother me more than help, to be honest. I am just venting out, girl, don't take my complains so much into account. I am an old being, surrounded by solitude. This is just a moment of crisis, it will go away briefly."_

" _If you are so sure…" she muttered, but he could sense the hesitation in her words. "In any case… how have you been doing, Time?"_

 _He took a small pause to sip on his tea and hum, pondering about his answer._

" _Well, Alice. I have been well"_

As Timur grew up, and grew better, his brothers and sisters begun to let hatred into their hearts. With an absent father that cared one and only for one of his children, the rest begun to succumb to the sadness and anger that it all brought to them.

And as quick as Timur was ten, having already built several clocks and fixed more than a hundred, his siblings armed a plan to take him out.

The youngest pretended to be lost in the forest close to their village. He, as a good older brother, rushed after them in their behalf, trying to find them and get them back home. However, he wondered way too far, and because of his older siblings screaming and making sounds around him, he started to get afraid and ran faster and further away until he found himself…

Until he found himself lost.

And as he had come for a quick search, he had only brought with himself a loaf of bread that his mother had told him to bring and his clock. A pocket, silver clock.

With those items only, he would never survive the night. What about the bears? What about the wolves? He wouldn't make it, and he couldn't find his way back home, no matter how much he tried.

The sun was going down, the night approached, and he could feel his despair and fear increasing as noises lured around him in the darkness.

He didn't know the hour, but at some moment, he broke down crying in fear, wrapping himself with his arms and sitting next to a tree as the sun left the sky and the moon made itself clear

He ate part of the bread, not knowing how long it would last. He thanked his mother for the coat he wore, and gripped onto the clock with all his might. He stared as the pointers ticked and tocked, moving around over the numbers.

Seconds, minutes and hours were all he had as friends for that night, and he fell asleep counting them, holding them close to his heart, as if they would die if not warm.

In that night, he dreamt of a castle, right in the centre of a clock. It was huge, and the clock was on the floor. Timur was staring at it from above, as if he was flying over its long and tall towers.

It was a beautiful sight, and he could remember it in detail when he woke up.

" _So this time you have nothing to fix here in Underland?"Time asked, curious, and Alice just smiled, nodding at him._

" _At last I have no duties down here… I can just stay for a while and drink a few cups of tea" she said and looked down, turning the tea water in her cup. Time frowned, noticing something that wasn't only happiness or thoughtfulness in her eyes._

" _Alice… you do not seem well" he said, and when she looked up confused, he gave her a smile. "Not physically. You are older, but that is expected of Overlandians. You seem… tired. Empty. Upset"_

" _Oh…" she muttered, and looked back down at her tea, sighing deeply. "Indeed I… I haven't been emotionally well in a while now" she smiled sadly and looked up again, her eyes filled with tears that made Time's engines fail for a moment. "However this is none of your concern… or your trouble to worry with"_

" _Alice…" he whispered, and moved his hand to cover hers on the table. "You are, dare I say it, the one person that showed themselves to be the most important one in my eternal life up until this moment" he smiled and squeezed her hand. "Please… whatever is troubling you, share it with me. I would gladly hear it"_

" _I would have been spending more than a minute of your you"_

" _I have plenty of minutes to spare"_

When Timur woke up on the next day, he was able to stand up, even though he was a bit dizzy. He looked around, not recognizing any of his surroundings, and decided to eat a bit more of his bread, humming and chewing on it as he started to walk. He felt the need to drink some water, but no matter where he looked, he could not find a river or a lake anywhere near. He was mostly sure that if he walked forward, he would find his home, which was the most important at that moment.

So, without a second guess, he continued to wonder through the forest, always forwards, not marking any trees or watching his direction through the sun. He just walked forward, praying and believing that that way would lead him home, or at least somewhere where he could find home.

He walked throughout the entire morning, with no avail. No matter how forward he went, all he found were trees and more trees.

By midday, he checked his clock and sighed. He was running out of time. If he hadn't found home until that point, he would never find home again.

His eyes teared up, but instead of sitting down and crying, he wiped them away and continued forward.

The forest begun to get even denser, but he didn't stop. He continued forward, determined to find his home or some other town where he could get information. His bread had already finished when he saw something moving behind a bush.

At first, he froze. Then, he heard a ticking sound.

A clock.

He gasped and ran after the sound, following the thing that moved in the bushes. If they had a clock, they should be from a village nearby.

They could be his chance to escape and go back home!

Timur followed the thing with no hesitation or doubt in his mind. His ten year old energy and his fear of being away from home made him go closer, faster. To a point where he couldn't really see his surroundings or pay attention to anything around him. All he could do was follow the ticking sound in hopes he would find someone.

And someone he did find, but only after falling down a hole in the ground.

" _It… it is my mother"_

" _What about her?" Time muttered, holding her hand and staring as his eyes shone a bit brighter. Alice took a deep breath, shaking her head._

" _She… she stopped ticking" she mumbled, squeezing his hand back. "And I… I do not know… what to do"_

" _Oh… Oh darling" he whispered and moved his chair closer to hers, pulling her closer gently and taking her in a hug. Alice gripped his cape and a sob came out of her mouth. "I am very, very sorry" he whispered, caressing her hair gently. "No matter the world, I know I can be… quite harsh"_

" _I-I just…" she whimpered and nuzzled on his shoulder. He closed his eyes, his engines freeing and failing again. His chest hurt so much. "I just wanted… a bit longer… just a little more…"_

" _Time" he whispered, and nodded slowly. "I know… I know…"_

" _D-doesn't it hurt? F-for you? To make them st-stop? Ticking?" she mumbled, calming down in his cold, machinery arms. He hummed, opening his eyes, moustache twitching as he thought._

" _It hurts more than you imagine. Every closed clock is a fond memory fading away" he whispered and looked down, making Alice look up. He cleaned her tears and smiled fondly, but sadly down at her. "But I guard them with care. They will never feel pain or sadness while they are in my hands"_

" _Where do the dead underlandians go?" she whispered, weakly. "Perhaps if I know where they go here… I will know where the overlandians go when they die"_

" _Overland and Underland are very different places, Alice" he said, holding her hand and sighing. "You better not have them mixed together, or that might affect your thinking"_

" _I do not care about my thinking…" she groaned. "They already think I am insane up there. I don't want to go back"_

" _What?"_

" _You heard me, Time. I want to stay. Stay in Underland forever. I don't want to leave again. I want to stay"_

" _I want to stay forever"_

Timur fell down the hole and screamed. His screaming soon came to an end, because no matter how much he screamed, he didn't seem to stop falling. As he looked down, the walls were covered in furniture, clocks, pianos, chairs and so on. They were made of dirty, and were lightened up by weird looking torches.

He had never thought he would see a hole like that.

When he finally saw the ground, after some good five minutes falling, he screamed again, only to have a bed make his fall slower and to make the floor break under his weight.

He looked around once he finally fell, groaning in pain, only to see that he was in fact in the ceiling, and that the hole he had made was on the ground bellow. So… he had fallen upwards?

Before he could make sense of it, he yelled, falling again from the ceiling to the ground. That time, he did not fall anymore, but as he looked around, the place he was at felt extremely familiar.

He stood up, looking around, seeing doors around the room. He rushed to one of them, trying to open it with no avail. He moved to the next, and the next, all of them locked or stuck.

Then, he saw a small door in a corner. He rushed to it, trying to open, but that too was locked or stuck. Groaning, he stood, looking around for any type of key.

There was none.

But there was a grandfather clock right next to a mirror.

Slowly, he walked to it, looking at himself on the mirror before he opened the door to the pendulum of the clock. Confused, but amazed, Timur realized that the door lead to a dark room, instead of being too small for him to fit. Slowly, he walked inside, his eyes widening at how huge the pendulum was. He moved through it with ease, and quickly took off into the unknown, curious and happy that he might have found some kind of secret passage through the clock into another secret room.

The place was dark and empty, and very, very cold. Holding his pocket clock close to his chest, he wondered in the darkness towards a faint blue like he could see in the end of it. The pendulum continued to move behind him, and so he heard, sometimes looking back to check if it was still there. He didn't want to get lost again.

After a while walking, he finally got to the source of the blue light. As he stared, his eyes widening, he saw exactly the same clock he had seen in his dream. Under his feet, he could see he was standing in the VI hour, and to his right approached a huge pointer. He gasped as it passed right in front of him, letting out sparks as it slid against the walls. That place was exactly like his dream, but there was a castle missing.

Why there was a castle missing?

He waited a minute for the pointer to come back, and as it did he jumped on it, grabbing onto the edges to keep himself over it. Once he had balance, he stood, looking down at the minutes' pointer. He waited another minute go by before jumping down on the minutes' pointer, holding onto it for a while and waiting its movement. Once it stopped, he ran, holding his pocket clock in his hand, stopping and holding onto the pointer whenever a minute passed.

After around ten minutes, he finally reached the centre of the clock, where he jumped and looked around. That was when he saw the gigantic clock standing upright in the middle of the middle of the giant clock.

He frowned at his own mental description, becoming confused, but soon waved it off, rushing to the clock and frowning when he saw it was broken. Its pointers weren't moving anymore. The clock wasn't ticking.

"Kaput" he whispered, walking to it and touching the large pedestals that held it up. Then, he looked down at his own clock and frowned.

He was a clocker.

He could fix it.

And maybe when he fixed it, he would find his way home.

He looked up, determination sparkling in his small eyes.

Yes. He would fix it. And then, he would go home.

" _You… Alice you cannot stay in Underland" he said, slowly, but her eyes were too determined to make him fight for long._

" _Why? Time, I have nothing left up there" she answered, pulling his hands to her chest, her eyes wide and bright and filled with hope and sadness. "My mother is gone. My father is gone. My sister doesn't speak to me for years. I am too old to lead a ship, my crew is mostly dead, my ship is barely holding it together" she sighed and bit her lip, but he saw the hesitation in her eyes. "There is nothing left"_

" _Alice" he said slowly, his voice calm and patient. His hands squeezed hers and he smiled, tilting his head and making a clock sound as he did so, his parts working together. "I know you are aware that once you decided to stay… there is no turning back" he continued, eyes flickering. "You cannot return to the Overland if you decide to leave it forever"_

" _I am aware of what I must give up to stay here" she said firmly, but something seemed to be holding her back. "And I have already decided to accept it all. I can't stay away from my friends any longer. I only have you" she muttered, her eyes becoming wet again. "I do not want to lose you… You are the family I have left"_

" _Alice" he said again, pulling one of his hands away and caressing her face. "My little, young lady. You aren't as young as you once were. You have lived, and seen many things. I see that in your eyes. Your fears and hesitations lie in your eyes, in your mind, even if your heart is decided" he smiled, gently putting a strand of her hair behind her ear. "I cannot help you with your decision, Alice. This is entirely yours to decide. However, if you were truly decided, you would not have come here to have this conversation. Perhaps a visit, yes, but not to decide your fate. So, now I make my last question" he looked deep into her eyes, and she looked back, no fear or insecurity. "What do you wish from me that your friends cannot provide?"_

" _Tell me what will happen with an overlandian that decides to stay in Underland" she muttered, their eyes never leaving each other's. "Tell me what happens… And I will make my decision"_

 _Time blinked a few times, expression remaining the same, before he moved back and leaned against his chair._

" _Fair enough"_

Timur worked for days. Or at least, it felt like days. Or, at least, they passed like days.

He did not feel hunger, however. Or thirst. Or tiredness. He also didn't feel sadness from being away from home, or frustration when he couldn't find the correct way of fixing the great clock in front of him.

No. All he felt was deep and intense determination.

He checked his own clock from time to time, finding it weird that his clock actually worked in the same way than the giant clock did. The giant clock did not need a pendulum, and nowhere he could find strings. But there was a small hole in the middle of it that seemed to be meant for some kind of small ball.

He would never fully understand it. He just hoped it wouldn't be necessary for the fixing of the clock, because he did not know what it was.

In any case, he continued to work on the clock for longer than he thought was humanly possible. He worked and worked and worked, fixing gears, creating tools out of random metal pieces he found laying on the ground. Everything seemed to be in perfect position for someone to find and fix the clock, and yet it was broken and dusty.

How long since anyone had even been in there?

After five days working endlessly in the clock, he was finally finished. All the glass was put in place, the numbers were corrected, the gears were connected and ready to run. However, something was still missing in that small hole, and he could not find what.

Sighing in frustration, Timur reached for his pocket to get his clock. However, once he reached inside, his clock was nowhere to be found. Instead, as he took his hand out of his pocket, he saw a small blue orb in his hand, glowing and warming up his hand.

He had never seen that before.

He blinked his eyes quickly, trying to make sense of it all, frowning and then gasping when he heard a door opening behind him. Door? There was no door there before! He jumped around, eyes wide as he saw, just outside that door, his home's window.

"Mama! Papa!" he squealed, the orb falling from his hand as he rushed to the door, getting outside and heading for the door, only to see his siblings just outside. Before he could speak, they begun, not seeing him just yet.

"Papa uzhe sdalsya ... yesli on vernetsya, my zakonchim yego raz i navsegda" (Dad has already surrended… if he comes back, we will finish him once and for all).

Upon hearing that, and the rest of his siblings agreeing, Timur felt tears rising in his eyes, and a very harsh pain fill his heart. He looked over at the kitchen, where his parents made dinner as if he hadn't disappeared for seven days.

Seven days? How had they already moved on in only a few days.

He looked over at the calendar in the window, and then around him, his eyes widening.

There was snow everywhere.

It was already winter.

He had spent months, months out.

He started to cry, but this time, he did it silently. He looked back, and the door there stood, a few feet away from him. He ran to it, closing it behind himself and sobbing loudly as he fell on the ground, confused and scared.

He couldn't possibly be alive after so many months… was this all a dream? A bad one?

If it was… well then maybe he didn't really want to wake up. Not to be killed by his siblings when he returned.

He wiped his tears away and looked forward, the ball glowing blue in front of him. He stood, taking it in his wet hand, and walked forward to the big clock, placing it over the small hole. As he did, the clock made a loud sound, as if a thunder had gone through its engines, and it began to move. The first tick was a relief to Timur's ears. His worries left and his mind cleared. In the next, he saw a light burning in his chest. In the next few seconds, he saw a world in front of him. In front of him, in front of his clock, he saw a gigantic world forming. There were castles, lakes, ponds, forests, gardens. It was sunny, like he imagined every day should be. The plants that grew, they had faces. They laughed, they talked. The animals could sing, they smiled, they were clothes. The humans were colorful clothes, and fancy ones too. The queens and kings were beautiful, lived in huge castles, with nice villagers all around.

As the clock ticked behind him, several pocket clocks started to appear around him, and everyone had a name.

A name, that weirdly or not, he recognized, even though he had never seen anywhere before.

And in the darkness of his grandfather clock, from its small glass door, he could see it all forming, and all people greeting each other, talking, being happy.

As if they had existed for a long, long time, and only now could walk and talk and live.

They were all clocks he had fixed. Clocks he had made.

Suddenly, it didn't seem like a dream at all. It all seemed pretty real.

When the first minute was over, he felt his heart beat in time with the ticking of the clock. He turned around and stared at it, confused, before his chest started to warm up. As he moved his coat apart, he gasped, seeing the copy of the giant clock in front of him ticking on his own chest, it glowing blue.

When he looked up again, the clock struck midday and he found himself flying. It struck again, and his arms started tingling. Slowly, he was turned in air as it struck. At every struck, something about him changed. He could feel his insides turning, hands getting cold and hard to move, something inside him start moving from one side to the other, his neck opening to let out steam from the machinery inside of him, and while it was all uncomfortable, he wasn't scared or afraid. At last, in the last strike, his eyes flickered, and everything seemed brighter and bluer.

No one told him. No voice alarmed him. There had been no one to warn the ten year old boy of what he just had become. No one to tell him that he could never remake his choice. No one to warn him of the dangers of what he had just got himself into.

Smiling, grinning, he walked to the glass door that lead to the new world he had created. Stepping outside, he greeted every citizen, and did not find himself surprised by how they knew his name and who he was and what he was.

He was Timur. He was the creator. The Overlandian. The owner of everything and everyone.

He looked down at the clock on his chest and touched the pointer, pressing it and keeping it in place. His body hurt and his engines malfunctioned, but everything around him stopped. His eyes widened and flickered.

He was _Time itself_.

He had his answer.

" _He is I and I am he, whatever it was and whatever shall be" Time repeated as he walked with Alice through the last hallway of his castle. Before entering the last door, he stopped and looked at Alice. "That was the poem I told you when you first arrived. But now I give you a riddle. How many clocks to you need to stop time?"_

 _Alice blinked slowly, and then frowned._

" _I don't believe a clock can control you, sir. Just… it can just say when you are…" she says slowly, and he chuckled, shaking his head._

" _That is not correct, young Alice" he said, and opened the door. "You need two. One in your heart…" he stepped aside, letting her see the gravestone outside the door. She looked over, her eyes widening at the sight in front of her. In the middle of a snowy forest, laid a single gravestone, with the name 'Timur' and the phrase 'Here lies a broken clock, and wasted time' carved into the rock, with a silver pocket clock rusting over it. "And another in your mind"_

" _You… you died…" she whispered, and turned to him, eyes wide. He chuckled and closed the door._

" _I did not. I am as alive as you see me, young Alice. With 300 years of age, now taking care of this marvelous world" he said, and took her hand gently. "If you stay, Alice, the Overland will believe you died. Disappeared. Your body will never be found. But you also cannot ever return" he said, and stared at her eyes, deeply."If you stay, you will be like me. A being with no beginning and no end. You will live throughout all your underlandian friends. You will rule with me in a palace of eternity, and will never be allowed out again. And once you become an old being such as me, another overlandian will take your place, as you took mine, and come over when Underland needs help" he explained slowly. "Do you understand?"_

" _I…" she mumbled, and looked to the door again, swallowing thickly. "I understand… and I want this. I want… I want to be here with my friends, even if I will outlive them. I don't want to return to the nothingness I have up there" she said and looked at him. "Time… have you ever regretted your decision?"_

 _Time took his time, pondering over her question, before he smiled and shook his head._

" _Not for one second, dear Alice"_

 _She then smiled at him and nodded._

" _Make me stay"_

" _With all my pleasure"_

 _The clock struck, and she begun to change._

 _Time let go of her hand, and watched as she transformed right in front of him. The smile never left his face, as it never left hers._

 _He looked down at his chest, watching the time pass by. A minute passed, and she moved down again, taking a deep breath and looking down at her body. She seemed normal, but inside he knew she had changed._

" _I…" she muttered, but he held her hand and nodded._

" _I know. You can stay in here until you get used to the differences. Now… do you wish for another cup of tea?"_

 _Her eyebrow raised, and in that moment, Time saw her eyes glisten like glass._

" _Of course, Timur"_

" _Accompany me, Alice"_

 _As they left the door behind, it disintegrated into thin air, leaving a wall behind it._

"Sir?"

"Yes, Wilkins?"

"If you are able to tell the future, why don't you do it, sir?"

"What would be the fun in knowing everything that is about to happen?"

"But don't you know anything, sir?"

Time hummed as he stared at his seconds, minutes and hours working on the castle around his clock, his mouth twisting in a smile.

"I am waiting for Glass, my dear Wilkins" he said, and turned around, his eyes flickering blue.

"When she arrives, I know my plans won't be in vain"


End file.
